I will land at the LZ of the hospital if I have to
by MarenMary93
Summary: Another friendly fic exchange/challenge with TinkerBella7. In the first ep, Mac gets rough-housed a bit, and the landing he has after the parachute escape doesn't look like the best landing possible either... And, of course Jack is worried 'bout his teammate. My take... Hurt!Mac, Worried!Jack


**Okay, so TinkerBella7 and I decided to give this fic exchange/challenge thing another go. Because it was a whole lot of fun.**

 **This time the we've taken the pilot as a base for our fics. More specifically, when Mac gets thrown around and banged towards the end of the episode, and the hard landing he took after the parachute escape.  
Jack would be worried. **

**She went first this time, now it's my turn.**

Jack kept an eye on Mac as he steered the chopper back towards the DXS. The kid was uncharacteristically silent, and he didn't move much either. This set off all of Jack's alerts.

"So, errr… Kid…" Jack started, his right hand tight around the joystick guiding the helicopter. "You doing okay there, bud?"

"Just a few bruises…" his words were saying one thing, but what Jack could read from Mac's body language told him something else.

"You sure? Cause you look like shit…"

"I don't." Mac countered, as loud as he dared to speak with his achy ribs.

"Oh, I beg to differ. You look as fucked up as I felt after the last evaluation test."

"The one in the Rockies?" Mac questioned, "There's no way I can look that bad. I feel fine…"

"Of course the one in the Rockies… I did not fall down from a tree in either Calgary or Honolulu…" Jack gripped the joystick harder. "Look kid, you're sitting funny… To me it looks like you have a couple of busted ribs, I should know… 'cause God knows I've had my share of them… You guard your right arm, like that's hurt too… You took a bad beating there kid, and that landing… Must've hurt too…"

"Jack, relax…"

"Look, I don't know how bad you're hurt, or not… But I know one thing, I sure as hell don't like what I'm seeing of you right now."

"What, why?"

"Kid, you have some tell-tale signs, telling me when you probably need a trip through the ER… Three out of four signs are up now…"

Mac frowned, but he was curious. "And what might those signs be?"

"You're sitting still. You're silent. You're pale." Jack rattled off, "Only thing missing is you passing out. Which I'm grateful for, by the way…"

"I'm sitting still because there's not much room in this metal cage. I'm silent because we're in a chopper and I can see the ground below us, you know I hate heights…" Mac stretched the truth to put Jack's focus on something else than him and his injuries. "And I'm pale because I still hate heights!"

"You do realize we've been in helicopters together many times…" Jack drawled, "You haven't acted like this before…"

"Whatever…" Mac sighed and looked out the window.

"Don't 'whatever' me young man!" Jack growled in the most paternal voice he could muster, "You know damn well I will land at the LZ of the hospital if I have to. Better just be honest and tell me what's wrong…"

Mac sighed, he knew Jack was speaking the truth. He had in fact landed at the landing zone of a hospital without authorization before.

"Couple of bruised ribs, front and back… Sprained my right shoulder while landing inside the truck. Scraped up my left palm after parachuting off the truck. A few extra bruises. And maybe, just maybe, a MILD concussion, maybe…"

"You sure that's all?"

"Cross my heart, Jack."

"Okay, but you're letting the medics back at DXS check you out. Just let them do that so that I can relax, okay?" Jack cast a look over at his younger coworker.

"Hey, this is nothing a recommended dosage of aspirin won't cure…"

"For my sake, just do it, kid..."

"Alright, old man…" Mac shook his head gently not to cause himself more pain. "But just because you're threatening to land at the hospital if I don't… "

"Attaboy! Now, in the future… I'd like you to just straight up tell me, without me having to force you…" Jack grinned, reaching his free arm over to nudge Mac's shoulder. Then, remembering Mac's sprained shoulder, he lets his own arm fall down against his side. "Can we agree on that?"

"Don't think I can make that promise… At least not yet…" Mac winced as he turned towards Jack, "But I'll try to remember, okay?"

"Guess that's a good an offer as I'm gonna get…"

"Yup…"

"Okay then… But you're letting the medics check you over…"

"Already agreed to that, Jay…"

Jack nodded, eyes locked on the landscape in front of them.

"BTW, nice job knocking that dude out. But when I throw you a gun, there's usually bullets in it…"

"Yeah, well… You know I don't like guns..."

"Well, I think that guy is just as dead after falling out of a truck going 65 an hour…"

"Yeah. Guess you're right, but I still don't like guns."

"Why?"

"Much easier to make mistakes with guns…" Mac answered, "Grandpa once told me a story from when he was a kid. Showed me how easily things could go wrong…"

"Well, as far as I know, your grandpa is full of wisdom. But that being said, you're an agent… Please, in emergencies, use guns the conventional way… Will you?"

"Hey, solved the problem. Didn't I?"

"Well, you did… But I swear, you're gonna give me a heart attack one day…" Jack shot back, but kept his tone light.

 **Okay, hope you enjoyed…**


End file.
